


Haunted Treasures

by fandomsandxfiles



Series: Files From the FBI's Most Unwanted [6]
Category: The X-Files
Genre: Drabble, F/M, Fictober 2020, Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-04
Updated: 2020-10-04
Packaged: 2021-03-07 20:13:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,144
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26803441
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fandomsandxfiles/pseuds/fandomsandxfiles
Summary: Mulder and Scully go to an antiques market, and Scully buys an interesting music box.
Relationships: Fox Mulder/Dana Scully
Series: Files From the FBI's Most Unwanted [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2020487
Kudos: 21





	Haunted Treasures

**Author's Note:**

> I had plans to write this for a little while, and it is based off of [this tumblr post](https://fandomsandxfiles.tumblr.com/post/629920418219835393)
> 
> I also added one of the Fictober 2020 prompts, and I might do a couple more little x-files ficlets with them if I get time!
> 
> you can also find me on tumblr [@fandomsandxfiles](https://fandomsandxfiles.tumblr.com/)

Mulder was starting to regret suggesting that he and Scully go to the antiques fair, because at this point he thought he was never going home again. He was awkwardly standing in front of one of the booths, staring off into space as Scully haggled with the old lady behind the table over the price of whatever fine china or silverware she set her sights on. She never actually bought anything, so Mulder wasn't exactly sure why she was negotiating prices. 

He had originally suggested that they take a drive out to this antiques market so they could hang out on a Saturday, and surprisingly, she agreed. So he showed up at her apartment at 7:00 in the morning so they could drive an hour to get to where the fair was being held. 

_"Why are we driving so far for a glorified garage sale?" she had asked him in the car, with her eyebrows raised. "What exactly do you hope to find?"_

_"I don't know Scully, it's part of the adventure," he had responded. "This isn't just a small thing, I think the flier said that nearly 100 tables were booked, and it's an antiques fair, not a garage sale."_

_"So what are you looking for? Something that some old lady claims to be haunted by the ghost of her great-great grandmother?"_

_"No!" Mulder said defensively. "I just thought it would be a fun outing for us."_

_Scully flashed him a look, she definitely wasn't convinced. "Whatever you say Mulder."_

Once they arrived though, Scully had warmed up to the concept. She had taken to dragging Mulder from booth to booth, no matter what he was looking at. That, or she watched him as he shopped with a judgmental look on her face, making comments about the items he showed interest in.

"Mulder, you're not going to buy _that_." (A porcelain statue of a frog holding a sign that read "go away.") 

"If you hang that up in the office I'm getting a transfer." (A photograph of a so-called haunted house, taken in 1905. There is clearly a person standing in the window, wearing a white sheet over their head to look like an apparition.)

"Absolutely not." (A 1920's vintage bowler hat. He tried it on anyway.) 

So he just started to follow her around as she looked at antique jewelry, fine china, and other items that seemed like people's lovely family heirlooms or treasured possessions. But he learned that Scully also had a penchant for antique dolls, which he definitely didn't understand. 

"Oh Mulder, look at this one!" she had said, pointing to a dirty-looking baby doll, with a face that Mulder was sure he had seen before, in his nightmares. 

He raised his eyebrows at her. "That?" he said in disbelief. " _That's_ the thing that would be haunted Scully, you'd just wake up one morning and see that floating over your bed." 

She didn't even bother to answer him, instead heaving a big sigh. She didn't look any further at the doll though, which Mulder considered a small victory. 

Eventually, he started to sneeze, and Scully looked at him in confusion. "Are you okay?" 

"Yeah, I'm just allergic to dust," Mulder explained. "It's probably bothering me because half this stuff hasn't seen the light of day since World War II." 

Scully nodded as they continued to make their way through the market, but soon Mulder was sneezing three, four times in a row. "Why don't you go back to the car?" Scully asked. "Unless you really want to risk your health for some dusty old artifacts." 

Mulder nodded, his eyes starting to tear up. "Wait," he said after a second. "What about you?" 

"I'll meet you there," she said vaguely. "But you dragged me an hour away from our homes for this Mulder, I'm not going to ruin my Saturday just because you can't stop sneezing." 

So Mulder went back to the car and sat there, waiting for Scully to show up. He tried to call her several times, but one time she hung up on him and the next time she didn't even bother to pick up, so he had no idea where she was or if she was even coming back. 

It felt like hours later, but Scully finally made her back to the car, and Mulder was immediately suspicious about what she was carrying in the canvas tote bag. "What happened to 'I'm not going to buy anything?'" he asked the minute she closed the car door. 

She scoffed and reached into the bag, pulling out an ornately decorated music box and flipped open the lid, letting the sound of Beethoven's "Fur Elise" fill the car. A small ballerina twirled on a pedestal while the music played. "It's not like I bought that frog statue you were looking at," she said. 

Mulder just shook his head. "Are you ready to go home now?" he said. "I feel like I've been sitting here for hours." 

"Fine, but let's get something for lunch first. And you're buying." 

Mulder put up an argument against that, but in reality he didn't really mind. 

***

The next week, Mulder found himself once again walking through the halls of Scully's apartment building, but something seemed odd. He passed several people in the halls and rode the elevator with another, and they were all humming the same tune. Mulder didn't register what the song was right away, and it wasn't until he was in Scully's apartment did he realize. Because she was humming the same tune. 

"Fur Elise!" he burst out, and she turned to him with a confused look. "The song you're humming, it's Fur Elise." 

"Oh yeah, I've let the music box play it a few times," she said nonchalantly. 

"Either that music box is incredibly loud, or something is wrong," Mulder said. "Because every single person I walked past on my way up here was humming that same tune."

"Mulder, it's not loud enough for the entire building to hear," Scully said. "There's no way that my music box is the reason everyone was humming Fur Elise. It's not exactly an obscure song you know." 

That's when Mulder had his epiphany. "Or your music box is haunted," he said.

"Absolutely not." 

"Come on, **you don't see it?** " he asked, smiling. "I can't believe you managed to go home with the one item from the entire antiques fair that's actually haunted." 

"Mulder, I may not have another explanation, but I can tell you for sure that the music box is not haunted," she said, crossing her arms across her chest. 

"Whatever you say Scully, whatever you say." 

He dropped the conversation after that, but he always made sure to pay attention whenever he was over Scully's apartment after that, just to see if he could catch something move on its own.

_\- the end -_


End file.
